Category: Wineries

Georis Winery 5th Annual Wine Club Event, Carmel Valley

Georis WineryEver since 2003, the middle of September brings a certain feeling of excitement to my mind. It brings to mind dusty, hot vineyards, absolutely full of virtually mature grapes. It brings thoughts of BBQ, zydeco music and twisting mountain roads. Walter and Syliva Georis welcome the middle of this month each year with their annual Georis Winery Club Event, celebrating the harvest. This vintage's party was last weekend 09/13/08, high in the Cachagua Valley at the Estate vineyards and winery within the Carmel Valley appellation. That morning Daniel, Christine, Beth and I all piled into Steve's car and headed off South towards wine and various predicted shenanigans. Beth and I have made all but one of the previous years' parties, indeed, I wrote about last year at my old personal blog on my MySpace. This year's party proved to be just as much fun as the last one!

WineQ.com: Your New Favorite Wine Club

WineQ.comI've always had a tough time with wine clubs over the years. On the one hand, there are so few wineries whose wines are so in tune with my palate and the styles that I like, that I don't find it worthwhile to join their club and be forced into some wines that I don't absolutely love. I've also joined many a wine club at a winery whose stable of vino changes over the years, so much so that I quit due to the change in my palate or their winemaker's. On the other hand, once I find that match, I love the convenience and thrill of getting that box of wine in the mail at my day job and knowing that I've just received some great wine that I'm going to be slurping in the future. That match occurs pretty rarely, more so as I expand my palate...there's also the issue of boredom, in that you receive so many wines this way that you don't get the chance to go out and shop for new wines that you've never tried. One new wine site has changed that equation. WineQ.com has managed to come up with one of those ideas where you just have to hit your head and say "ACK! Why didn't I think of that (and implement it really well)!?!"

Pops & Son 4th Wine Trip, Day 3: Chateau Jean-Gene-ie via WineTwo and tha Kaz

Chateau Jean-GeneDay 3 of our wine trilogy was my last day with Pops on this, our 4th Wine Trip together. I wrote about the first day in Napa, here and the second, more freestyle day in Sonoma, over here. Today we were focused on the whole reason we included Sonoma on this particular trip and a reason for which I had quite a bit of excitement...a semi-trade, private reserve tasting at longtime Sonoma Valley stalwart, Chateau St. Jean. My family from my grandparents down to my sister and I have been making our way over to our neighboring Valley for decades to picnic and tool around the beautiful grounds. I have to admit however, that despite having many of their more mass-produced wines, I couldn't remember ever tasting any of their Reserves or winery-only limited run wines. I was about to cross those off my list!

Pops & Son 4th Wine Trip, Day 2: The Good and the Bad

Carneros MapFriday was the sandwiched day of our trip, a continuation of the 4th wine trip that I've taken with Pops. I wrote about the first day when we visited Flora Springs via GiftyBox and Pope Valley Winery. It was the beef in our burger, cold cuts in the sammy, ice cream in the It's-It, or...ok, enough! Anyhow, Friday was our transition day to from Napa to Sonoma. It was also the only day on the trip where Pops and I had no set plans. We started the day as usual, having coffee at Brown's Valley Yogurt & Espresso Bar, with Pops' buddies. Following that, we headed out, alllll the wayyyy to Sonoma (it's about 20 minutes max, from my Parents' home in Brown's Valley, Napa). Our first stop was actually a couple miles South of Sonoma at one of our favorite diners, the Schellville Grill. It's been serving great down-home food for decades and almost just as consistently, flooding every Winter. The all-important big wine-tasting breakfast accomplished, we headed further South to the Sonoma portion of Carneros after some thoughtful planning over our country potatoes.
Scroll to top